From the Ministry of Children's Indoctrination comes our new protector against those evil-doers: the new NSA mascot: a cutie kittie that, pre-spying scandal, used to have a tougher image:

The NSA updated their children's outreach site recently. In the process, the previous mascot, Crypto Cat, has undergone some changes. Previously, Crypto Cat was a male dressed in a trench coat, but she is now a high school teenager in a midriff-baring sweater.

In addition, the NSA has added new characters to make a spy supergroup known as the "CryptoKids (TM)". The new characters include Decipher Dog, Joules (squirrel), Slate (rabbit), T. Top (turtle), and Rosetta Stone (fox). Each of them have their own special abilities -- they are like the Power Rangers for warrantless wiretaps.

It's interesting that Crypto Cat has undergone sexual reassignment and that she has had her duties limited to cryptography. Does her focus on encryption play into the cultural notion that girls are better at keeping secrets then boys? Is the decrypting dog simply opposisionally canine and male? Interesting stuff. . . .

IMHO the Cryto Cat is a vast improvement on Broadband, the morbidly obese, FCC cat - who will soon run the Internet. . . .

to the women of Bletchley Park. Funny comment about the cultural notion on keeping secrets. I was always trained that women were generally worse than men at keeping secrets. However, differences between men and women are often dramatically overshadowed by actual differences between cultures (e;g;, old school Japan vs. modern middle east).